Data Centre Design for Canadian Small & Medium Sized Businesses

Scalable Data Center Designs for Canadian
Small & Medium Size Business
Session ID T-DC-16-I
Simon Vaillancourt, Systems Engineer

Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.T-DC-16-I Cisco Public
House Keeping Notes
Thank you for attending Cisco Connect Toronto 2014, here are a few
housekeeping notes to ensure we all enjoy the session today.
§  Please ensure your cellphones are set on silent to ensure no one is disturbed
during the session
§  Please keep this session interactive and ask questions, unless we get
sidetracked, then I may ask to keep questions for the end of the session to
ensure all material is covered
3

A Few key-words to consider
4
SCALABLE:
–  Right-sizing the Data Center, not just large scale.
–  Using components that will also transition easily
into larger designs.
SMALL-MEDIUM:
–  Requiring a dedicated pair of DC switches.
–  The transition point upwards from collapsed-
core.
–  Separate Layer 2/3 boundary, with DC-oriented
feature set.
–  Layer-2 edge switching for virtualization.
DATA CENTER DESIGNS:
–  Tradeoffs of components to fill topology roles.
WAN/Internet
Edge
Client Access/
Enterprise
Data Center
L3
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L2

Session Agenda
5
§ Midsize Data Center Requirements
–  Goals and Challenges
–  Fabric Requirements
§ Starting Point: The Access Pod
–  Compute and Storage Edge Requirements
–  Key Features
§ Single Pod Design Examples
–  Fixed/Semi-modular/Modular Designs
–  vPC Best Practices
§ Moving to a Multi-Tier Fabric
–  Spine/Leaf Designs, roadmap to ACI/DFA
–  FabricPath Best Practices

Midsize Data Center Goals and Challenges
Provide example designs which are:
§  Flexible: to support different types of Servers, Storage, Applications, and Service
Integration requirements.
§  Practical: to balance cost with port density requirements, software features, and
hardware capabilities.
§  Agile: allow rapid growth of the network as needs change. Reuse components in new
roles for investment protection.
6
§  Choose features to prioritize when making design choices:
ü  Leaf/Access Features: Robust FEX options, Enhanced vPC, 10GBASE-T support,
Unified Ports (Native Fibre Channel), FCoE, Adapter-FEX, VM-FEX
ü  Spine/Aggregation Features: 40 Gig-E, Routing Scale, OTV, MPLS, HA, VDC’s

Growth with Investment protection
Re-Use key switching components as the design scales
7
Single Switching Layer with
Direct-attached Servers, FEX
Spine/Leaf Switch Fabric
Easily scale the fabric further:
Ø  Add Spine switches to scale fabric bandwidth
Ø  Add Leaf switches to scale edge port density
Single-layer expands to form
Spine/Leaf fabric design
Scaled Spine/Leaf Fabric with
Automation and Orchestration

Server and Storage needs Drive Design Choices
8
VM VMVM
FCoE
iSCSI
FC
NFS/
CIFS
VM VMVM
§  Virtualization Requirements
–  vSwitch/DVS/OVS
–  Nexus 1000V, VM-FEX, Adapter-FEX
–  APIs/Programmability/Orchestration
§  Connectivity Model
–  10 or 1-GigE Server ports
–  NIC/HBA Interfaces per-server
–  NIC Teaming models
§  Form Factor
–  Unified Computing Fabric
–  3rd Party Blade Servers
–  Rack Servers (Non-UCS Managed)
§  Storage Protocols
–  Fibre Channel
–  FCoE
–  IP (iSCSI, NAS)

Data Center Fabric Requirements
9
•  Varied “North-South”
communication needs with end-
users and external entities.
•  Increasing “East-West”
communication: clustered
applications and workload mobility.
•  High throughput and low latency
requirements.
•  Increasing high availability
requirements.
•  Automated provisioning and control
with orchestration, monitoring, and
management tools.
EAST – WEST TRAFFIC
NORTH-SOUTHTRAFFIC
FC
FCoE
iSCSI / NAS
Server/Compute
Site B
Enterprise
Network
Public
Cloud
Internet
DATA
CENTER
FABRIC
Mobile
Services
Storage
Orchestration/
Monitoring
Offsite DC
API

Session Agenda
10
–  Key Features

Access Pod basics: Compute, Storage, and Network
11
Access/Leaf
Switch Pair
Storage Array
UCS Fabric
Interconnect
System
To Data Center
Aggregation or
Network Core
“Different Drawing, Same Components”

Access Pod Features: Virtual Port Channel (vPC)
12
Virtual Port Channel
L2
SiSi SiSi
Non-vPC vPC
Physical Topology Logical Topology
§  Port-Channels allow aggregation of multiple
physical links into a logical bundle.
§  vPC allows Port-channel link aggregation to
span two separate physical switches.
§  With vPC, Spanning Tree Protocol is no
longer the primary means of loop prevention
§  Provides more efficient bandwidth utilization
since all links are actively forwarding
§  vPC maintains independent control and
management planes
§  Two peer vPC switches are joined together
to form a “domain”

Access Pod Features: Nexus 2000 Fabric Extension
13
Dual NIC 802.3ad
Server
Dual NIC Active/
Standby Server
•  Using FEX provides Top-of-Rack presence in
more racks with fewer points of management,
less cabling, and lower cost.
•  In a “straight-through” FEX configuration, each
Nexus 2000 FEX is only connected to one
parent switch.
•  Supported straight-through FEX parent switch
are Nexus 5000, 6000, 7000 and 9300*
•  Nexus 2000 includes 1/10GigE models, plus
the B22 models for use in blade server
chassis from HP, Dell, Fujitsu, and IBM.
*with upcoming NX-OS 6.1(2)I2(3)
Verify FEX scale and compatibility on cisco.com per platform.
Nexus 2000
FEX
Nexus Parent
Switch
End/Middle of Row Switching with FEX

Nexus Fabric Features: Enhanced vPC (EvPC)
Dual-homed FEX with addition of dual-homed servers
14
Dual NIC
802.3ad
Dual NIC Active/
Standby
Single NIC
•  In an EvPC configuration, server NIC teaming
configurations or single-homed server are supported
on any port; no vPC ‘orphan ports’
•  All components in the network path are fully
redundant.
•  Supported FEX parent switches are Nexus 6000,
5600 and 5500.
•  Provides flexibility to mix all three server NIC
configurations (single NIC, Active/Standby and NIC
Port Channel).
*Port Channel to active/active server is not configured as a “vPC”.
*N7000 planned to support dual-homed FEX without dual-homed
servers targeted in NX-OS 7.1
Nexus
6000/5600/5500
FEX

Nexus Fabric Features: FCoE and Unified Ports
Seamless transport of both storage and data traffic at the server edge
Unified Ports:
•  May be configured to support either native
Fibre Channel or Ethernet
•  Available on Nexus 5500/5600UP switches, or
as an expansion module on Nexus 6004.
Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE):
•  FCoE allows encapsulation and transport of
Fibre Channel traffic over an Ethernet network
•  Traffic may be extended over Multi-Hop FCoE,
or directed to an FC SAN
•  SAN “A” / “B” isolation is maintained across the
network
FC
Servers with CNA
Nexus Ethernet/FC Switches
FCoE
Links
SAN-BSAN-A
Fibre
Channel
Traffic
Ethernet
or Fibre
Channel
Traffic
Fibre
Channel
Any Unified Port can be configured as:
Disk Array

Planning Physical Data Center Pod Requirements
16
Compute
Rack
Network/Storage
Rack
(2)N2232
FEX
(32) 1RU
Rack
Servers
§  Plan for growth in a modular, pod-
based repeatable fashion.
§  Your own “pod” definition may be
based on compute, network, or
storage requirements.
§  How many current servers/racks
and what is the expected growth?
§  Map physical Data Center needs
to a flexible communication
topology.
§  Nexus switching at Middle or End
of Row will aggregate multiple
racks of servers with FEX.
(2) N5548UP
Storage
Arrays
Term Svr,
Mgt Switch
PATCH
Today’s
Server
Racks
Tomorrow’s
Data Center
Floor

Working with 10 and 40 Gigabit Ethernet
17
QSFP-40G-SR4 with direct MPO and 4x10
MPO-to-LC duplex splitter fiber cables
QSFP-40G-CR4
direct-attach cables
QSFP+ to 4-SFP+
direct-attach cables
(splitter)
§  Nexus 2;3;5;6;7;9K support SFP+ and
QSFP-based 10/40 Gigabit Ethernet
interfaces.*
§  Direct-attach cables/twinax
o  Low power
o  Low cost
§  QSFP to 4x SFP+ splitter cables
§  40 Gigabit Ethernet cable types:
o Direct-attach copper
o Optics with SR4, CSR4, LR4
* Verify platform-specific support of specific optics/distances from
reference slide

40G Offering QSFP BiDi support
•  Utilize existing duplex fiber commonly deployed in
10G environment today
•  Reduce 40G transition cost by eliminating the need
to upgrade fiber plant
•  75% average savings over parallel fiber for new
deployments
Technology
Value Proposition
12-fiber MPO Duplex LC

QSFP/SFP+ References
19
§  QSFP BiDi 40Gig Datasheet
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/switches/ps9441/ps13386/datasheet-c78-730160.html
§  QSFP 40Gig datasheet
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/modules/ps5455/data_sheet_c78-660083_ps11541_Products_Data_Sheet.html
§  Platform specific QSFP compatibility matrix
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/interfaces_modules/transceiver_modules/compatibility/matrix/OL_24900.html
§  Platform specific SFP+ compatibility matrix
http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/interfaces_modules/transceiver_modules/compatibility/matrix/OL_6974.html
§  40Gig Cabling White Papers
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/switches/ps9441/ps13386/white-paper-c11-729493.pdf
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps11708/index.html
For Your
Reference

Data Center Service Integration Approaches
20
VM VMVMVM VMVM
Network
Core
Virtualized Servers with
Nexus 1000v and vPath
Physical DC
Service Appliances
(Firewall, ADC/SLB,
etc.)
Virtual DC
Services in
Software
§  Data Center Service Insertion Needs
o  Firewall, Intrusion Prevention
o  Application Delivery, Server Load Balancing
o  Network Analysis, WAN Optimization
§  Physical Service Appliances
o  Typically introduced at Layer 2/3 Boundary or Data
Center edge.
o  Traffic direction with VLAN provisioning, Policy-
Based Routing, WCCP.
o  Use PortChannel connections to vPC.
o  Statically Routed through vPC, or transparent.
§  Virtualized Services
o  Deployed in a distributed manner along with virtual
machines.
o  Traffic direction with vPath and Nexus 1000v.
o  Cloud Services Router (CSR1000V) for smaller
scale DCI/OTV, etc.
L3
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L2

Cisco InterCloud
Workload Portability for the Hybrid Cloud
PRIVATE
CLOUD
PUBLIC
CLOUD
InterCloud Director
InterCloud Secure Fabric
Cisco
Powered
VM VM
InterCloud Provider
Enablement Platform
Secure network extension
Workload mobility
Administration portal
Workload management
Cloud APIs
•  Dev/Test
•  Control of “Shadow IT”
•  Capacity Augmentation
•  Disaster Recovery

Cisco UCS Director Infrastructure Management
On-Demand
Automated Delivery
Policy-Driven
Provisioning
Secure
Cloud
Container
VMsComputeNetwork Storage
UCS Director
Domain
Managers
OS and
Virtual
Machines
Storage
Network
Compute
Tenant
B
Tenant
C
Tenant
A
Virtualized and Bare-Metal
Compute and Hypervisor
B CA
Network and Services
VM VM
Bare
Metal
Unified Pane of Glass
End-to-End
Automation and
Lifecycle
Management

Cisco Management Software Portfolio
UCS Manager, Central, APIC, DCNM and UCS Director
23
UCS Manager
UCS Central
UCS Director
•  Manage Single
UCS domain
•  Embedded
Management of all
UCS s/w and h/w
components
•  Manage multiple
UCS Domains
•  Deliver global
policies, service
profiles, ID pools,
and templates
•  Manage Compute,
Storage, Network, ACI
and Virtualisation
•  Manage FlexPod,
VSPEX, Vblock
•  Support for 3rd party
heterogeneous
infrastructure
APIC & DFA
•  Embedded
Management for ACI
•  Manages ACI Fabric
•  L4-7 Management
•  Policies: Connectivity,
Security & QoS.
APIC

Session Agenda
24
–  Key Features

FC
Single Layer DC, Fixed/Semi-Modular Switching
FCoE
iSCSI / NAS
1Gig/100M
Servers 10 or 1-Gig attached
UCS C-Series
10-GigE
UCS C-Series
L3
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L2
Nexus 5600
Client Access
WAN / DCI
Nexus 5600 Data Center Switches:
•  5672UP: 1RU, 48 1/10GE + 6 QSFP (16 Unified Ports)
•  56128P: 2RU, 48 1/10GE + 4 QSFP, 2 expansion slots
(24 1/10GE-Unified Port + 2 QSFP module available)
Non-blocking, line-rate Layer-2/3 switching
with low latency ~1 µs.
FCoE plus 2/4/8G Fibre Channel options.
Hardware-based Layer-2/3 VXLAN, NVGRE.
Dynamic Fabric Automation (DFA) capable.
Design Notes:
Ø  OTV, LISP DCI may be provisioned through separate Nexus
7000 or ASR 1000 WAN Routers
Ø  ISSU not supported with Layer-3 on Nexus 5000/6000
Nexus 2000 FEX

Single Layer Data Center, Modular Chassis
High-Availability, Modular 1/10/40/100 GigE
•  Nexus 7700, common asics and software
shared with Nexus 7000 platform.
•  Using F3 I/O Module, concurrent support for:
Ø  OTV, LISP, MPLS, VPLS
Ø  FabricPath, FCoE and FEX
•  Dual-Supervisor High Availability.
•  Layer-2/3 In Service Software Upgrade (ISSU)
•  Virtual Device Contexts (VDC)
•  Layer-2/3 VXLAN in hardware on F3 card.
•  Dynamic Fabric Automation support; NX-OS 7.1
Design Notes:
Ø  For native Fibre Channel add Nexus/MDS SAN.
Ø  FCoE direct to FEX support planned for NX-OS 7.1
iSCSI / NAS
10 or 1-Gig attached UCS C-Series
L3
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L2
Nexus 7706
Nexus 7004
WAN
Campus
Client Access
Spine/
Leaf
VDCs
OTV
VDCs

Single Layer Data Center, Nexus 6004
Positioned for rapid scalability and a 40-GigE Fabric
FCoE
iSCSI / NAS
10 or 1-Gig attached UCS C-Series
L3
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L2Nexus 6004
WAN / DCI
Nexus 6004-EF Benefits:
§  Up to 96 40-GigE, 160 UP or 384 10-GigE
§  Integrated line-rate layer-3
§  Native 40-Gig switch fabric capability
§  Low ~1us switch latency at Layer-2/3
§  Line-rate SPAN at 10/40 GigE
Example Components:
§  2 x Nexus 6004-EF, 24 40G or 96 10G ports
active
§  L3, Storage Licensing and M20UP LEM
§  8 x Nexus 2248PQ or 2232PP/TM-E
Note: FCoE, iSCSI, NAS storage are supported
and native FC module just released.
Campus
Client Access
27
FC

Single Layer Data Center, ACI-Ready Platform
1Gig/100M
Servers 10 or 1-Gig attached
UCS C-Series
10-GigE
UCS C-Series
L3
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L2
Nexus 9396PX
Client Access
WAN / DCI
Nexus 9000 switching platforms enable migration
to Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI).
May also be deployed with in standalone NX-OS
mode (no APIC controller).
•  9396PX: 48 1/10GigE SFP+ ports, 12 QSFP
•  9504: Small-footprint HA modular platform
•  Basic vPC and straight-through FEX supported as of
NX-OS 6.1(2)I2(3)
•  VXLAN Layer-2/3 in hardware
•  IP-based storage support
•  Low latency, non-blocking Layer-2/3 switching ~1µs
Design Notes:
Ø  OTV, LISP DCI may be provisioned through separate
Nexus 7000 or ASR 1000 WAN Routers.
Ø  Fibre Channel or FCoE support requires separate MDS or
Nexus 5500/5600 SAN switching. (Future FCoE capable)
Ø  ISSU support targeted for 2HCY14 on 9300.
iSCSI /
NAS
FEX

Single Layer Data Center plus UCS Fabric
Alternate Server Edge 1: UCS Fabric Interconnects with Blade and Rack Servers
L3
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L2
Nexus 5672UP
WAN / DCI
§  Typically 4 – 8 UCS Chassis per Fabric
Interconnect pair. Maximum is 20.
§  UCSM can also manage C-Series servers
through 2232PP FEX to UCS Fabric.
§  Dedicated FCoE uplinks from UCS FI to the
Nexus 5672UP for FCoE/FC SAN Access
§  Nexus switching layer provides inter-VLAN
routing, upstream connectivity, and storage
fabric services.
§  Example DC Switching Components:
§  2 x Nexus 5672UP
§  Layer- 3 and Storage Licensing
§  2 x Nexus 2232PP/TM-E UCSM managed
C-Series
UCS Fabric
Interconnects
FC / FCoE
iSCSI / NAS
Campus
Client Access
29
Nexus 2000
UCS B-Series
Chassis
FC

Single Layer Data Center plus B22 FEX
Alternate Server Edge 2: HP, Dell, Fujitsu or IBM Blades Example with B22 FEX
L3
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L2
Nexus 5672UP
WAN / DCI
§  B22 FEX allows Fabric Extension directly
into compatible 3rd-party chassis.
§  Provides consistent network topology for
multiple 3rd-party blade systems and non-
UCSM rack servers.
§  FC or FCoE-based storage
§  Example Components:
§  2 x Nexus 5672UP
§  L3 and Storage Licensing
§  4 x Nexus B22
§  Server totals vary based on optional use
of additional FEX.
UCS C-Series
Cisco B22 FEX for
Blade Chassis
Access
Campus
Client Access
30
FC
FC / FCoE
iSCSI / NAS

Flexible Design with Access Pod Variants
Mix and match Layer-2 compute connectivity for migration or scale requirements
31
Rack Server
Access with FEX
UCS Managed
Blade and Rack
B22 FEX with 3rd
Party Blade Servers
3rd Party Blades with
PassThru and FEX
More features, highest value and physical consolidation
§  Nexus switching and FEX
provide operational
consistency

Configuration Best Practices Summary:
vPC with Layer-2, Layer-3

Virtual Port Channel and Layer-2 Optimizations
What features to enable?
§  Autorecovery: Enables a single vPC peer
to bring up port channels after power
outage scenarios
§  Orphan Port Suspend: Allows non-vPC
ports to fate-share with vPC, enables
consistent behavior for Active/Standby
NIC Teaming
§  vPC Peer Switch: Allows vPC peers to
behave as a single STP Bridge ID (not
required with vPC+ with FabricPath)
§  Unidirectional Link Detection (UDLD):
Best practice for fiber port connectivity to
prevent one-way communication (use
“normal” mode)
Dual NIC
802.3ad
Dual NIC
Active/Standby
vPC Domain:
•  autorecovery
•  vpc peer switch
Identify Orphan
Ports for Active/
Standby Teaming
33
For Your
Reference

Virtual Port Channel and Layer-3 Optimizations
What features to enable?
§  vPC and HSRP: Keep HSRP timers at defaults,
vPC enables active/active HSRP forwarding
§  vPC Peer Gateway: Allows the peers to respond to
the HSRP MAC, as well as the physical MAC’s of
both peers.
§  IP ARP Synchronize: Proactively synchronizes the
ARP table between vPC Peers over Cisco Fabric
Services (CFS)
§  Layer-3 Peering VLAN: Keep a single VLAN for
IGP peering between N5k/6k vPC peers on the peer
link. (On N7k can also use a separate physical link)
§  Bind-VRF: Required on Nexus 5500, 6000 for
multicast forwarding in a vPC environment. (Not
required if using vPC+ with FabricPath)
Layer-3 Peering
vPC Domain
34
vPC Domain:
•  Peer gateway
•  ip arp sync
L3
-----------
L2
For Your
Reference

Session Agenda
35
–  Key Features

Migration from single-layer to spine/leaf fabric
36
Nexus 7000 or 6004
Single Layer
Nexus 5000 or 9300
Single Layer
•  Larger switches more
suited to becoming spine
layer.
•  Smaller switches more
suited to becoming leaf/
access.
•  Layer-3 gateway can
migrate to spine switches
or to “border-leaf” switch
pair.
•  Spine switches can support
leaf switch connections,
plus some FEX and direct-
attached servers during
migration.
Spine/Leaf Data Center Fabric
Spine
Leaf

Dynamic Fabric Automation (DFA)
Modular building blocks for migration to an automated fabric
37
Leaf
Nexus 7k, 6k, 5k
Spine
Nexus 7k,6k
WAN / DCI
DFA Fabric
Client Access
Border-Leaf
Nexus 7k, 6k
DCNM
DFA Central Point
of Management
Workload Automation:
•  Integration with cloud orchestration stacks for,
dynamic configuration of fabric leaf switches.
Optimized Networking:
•  Provides a distributed default gateway in the leaf
layer to handle traffic from any subnet or VLAN.
Virtual Fabrics:
•  Implements segment-id in frame header to eliminate
hard VLAN scale limits, supports multi-tenancy.
Fabric Management:
•  Provides central point of fabric management
(CPOM) for network, virtual-fabric and host visibility.
•  Auto-configuration of new switches to expand the
fabric using POAP, cable plan consistency check.
DCNM

Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI)
APIC controller-managed fabric based on Nexus 9000 hardware innovations
38
Leaf
Nexus 9300
Spine
Nexus 9500
WAN / DCI
ACI Fabric
•  Centralized provisioning and abstraction
layer for control of the switching fabric.
•  Simplified automation with an application-
driven policy model.
•  Controller provides policy to switches in the
fabric but is not in the forwarding path.
•  Normalizes traffic to a VXLAN encapsulation
with Layer-3 Gateway and optimized
forwarding.
•  Decouples endpoint identity, location, and
policy from the underlying topology.
•  Provides for service insertion and redirection.
Application
Infrastructure
Policy Controller
Client Access
APIC APIC
APIC
Border-Leaf
Nexus 9000

Expanded Spine/Leaf Nexus Data Center Fabric
Introduction of Spine layer, and FabricPath forwarding
Data Center switching control plane distributed
over Dual Layers.
•  Spine: FabricPath switch-id based forwarding, but
also providing Layer-3 and service integration.
•  Leaf: Physical TOR switching or FEX aggregation
for multiple racks.
Multi-hop FCoE with dedicated links.
Example Components:
•  2 x Nexus 6004, 2 x Nexus 5672UP
•  Layer-3 and Storage Licensing
•  12 x Nexus 2232PP/TM-E
FabricPath enabled between tiers for
configuration simplicity and future expansion.
Nexus 5600
Leaf
L3
-----------
L2
Nexus 6004
Spine
10 or 1-Gig attached
UCS C-Series
WAN /DCI
FCoE
iSCSI / NAS
FabricPath
Forwarding
FC

WAN /DCI
Adding Access Pods to Grow the Fabric
Modular expansion with added leaf-switch pairs
L3
-----------
L2
Rack Server Access
with FEX
FCoE
iSCSI / NAS
Rack Server Access
with FEX
Nexus 5600
Leaf
Nexus 6004
Spine
Data Center switching control plane distributed
over Dual Layers.
•  Spine: FabricPath switch-id based forwarding, but
also providing Layer-3 and service integration.
•  Leaf: Physical TOR switching or FEX aggregation
for multiple racks.
Multi-hop FCoE with dedicated links.
Example Components:
•  2 x Nexus 6004, 4 x Nexus 5672UP
•  Layer-3 and Storage Licensing
•  24 x Nexus 2232PP/TM-E
FabricPath enabled between tiers for
configuration simplicity and future expansion.
FC

Modular, High Availability Data Center Fabric
Virtual Device Contexts partitioning the physical switch
41
WAN
Spine
VDC
Storage
VDC
OTV
VDC
Core
VDC
L3
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L2
Rack Server Access
with FEX
Rack Server Access
with FEX
FCoE
iSCSI / NAS
Nexus 7700 FabricPath Spine, 5672UP Leaf
•  Highly Available spine switching design with dual-
supervisor.
•  VDCs allow OTV and Storage functions to be
partitioned on common hardware.
•  Add leaf pairs for greater end node connectivity.
•  Add spine nodes for greater fabric scale and HA.
•  FCoE support over dedicated links and VDC.
Specific Nexus features utilized:
•  Integrated DCI support with OTV, LISP, MPLS,
and VPLS .
•  Feature-rich switching fabric with FEX, vPC,
FabricPath, FCoE.
•  Investment protection of a chassis-based switch.

FabricPath with vPC+ Best Practices Summary
42
L3
-----------
L2
•  Manually assign FabricPath physical switch ID’s to
easily identify switches for operational support.
•  Configure all leaf switches with STP root priority, or
use pseudo-priority to control STP.
•  Ensure all access VLANs are “mode fabricpath” to
allow forwarding over the vPC+ peer-link which is a
FabricPath link.
•  Use vPC+ at the Layer-3 gateway pair to provide
active/active HSRP.
•  Set FabricPath root-priority on the Spine switches
for multi-destination trees.
•  Enable overload-bit under FabricPath domain to
delay switch forwarding state on insertion into fabric
“set-overload-bit on-startup <seconds>”
VPC Domain
100
VPC Domain
10
FabricPath
SW-ID: 101
FabricPath
SW-ID: 102
For Your
Reference

Summary: Scalable Midsize Data Center Designs
43
§  Midsize Data Centers can benefit from the
same technology advances as larger ones.
§  Increase the stability of larger Layer-2
workload domains using vPC, FabricPath,
and vPC+.
§  Start with a structured approach that allows
modular design as requirements grow.
§  Evaluate Nexus switching options based on
feature support, scale, and performance.
§  Plan ahead for re-use of components in
new roles as needs change.

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References and Relevant Content
46
§  Cisco Press MSDC Overlay Book: Using TRILL, FabricPath and VXLAN
http://www.ciscopress.com/store/using-trill-fabricpath-and-vxlan-designing-massively-9781587143939
§  Cisco Press UCS Book: Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS)
http://www.ciscopress.com/store/cisco-unified-computing-system-ucs-data-center-a-complete-9781587141935
§  Cisco Press Nexus Book: NX-OS and Cisco Nexus Switching
http://www.ciscopress.com/store/nx-os-and-cisco-nexus-switching-next-generation-data-9781587143045
§  Cisco Live Technical Breakout Session:
–  BRKDCT-2218 - Data Center Design for the Midsize Enterprise
For Your
Reference

Data Centre Design for Canadian Small & Medium Sized Businesses

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